Basset
Meaning: Description of a type of long-eared, short-legged dog once used for hunting foxes and badgers (and therefore also known as a basset hound).
Origins & History: “Basset” was not originally the name of a type or breed of dog – it was simply a description, in French, of fogs that were short in stature (bas, “low”) and relatively small otherwise (-et, diminutive suffix); it was first recorded in English in 1616, since when it has apparently always been pronounced in the English fashion, and not the French.
*From the book Dog the Wag by Mike Darton
